This site’s value was reinforced by yesterday’s advance call and then visit to my FL dealer. My TCH: Silver Shadow (2007 Georgetown build delivered November 2006) no NAV.

Visit was 15K Service/Oil Change/Tire Rotation and to check the noted warranty issues. I know there are threads on oil, radio and squeaks/rattles and traction battery drain after service as well as tire brand and pressure/dealer reactions, so forgive me for posting this narrative just once. Results:

1.Oil & Tire Rotation (Bridgestones) By my advance call the parts/service guys told me “the tank” for oil was 10/30W and were surprised (but very accommodating), when I told them I wanted 5/20 W and pointed out the manual’s recommended viscosity for typical FL driving. Since all my oil changes have been done there, to date, I now assume that my two prior changes (and other typical hybrid owner oil changes) were 10/30W. Who knows what oil viscosity Toyota or the Southeast Toyota distributor actually put in new vehicles? Cost for oil/filter change and tire rotation for total cost of $42.96. They told me that they’d checked other possible 15K items like the air filter and saved me money as those items did not need to be replaced.

2.Since the 10K service I’d noticed and isolated a persistent squeak/rattle that emanates from the plastic shifter plate. They gladly assessed it and have a part on order. I’ll try and post specific part/results when known.

3.Intermittent AM Radio Cut Out – Weak Signal. I’ve had the occasional and not really reproducible AM radio cut out issue which has been a rare, minor annoyance. It was always correctable in the car by cycling through the modes or radio on/off. I told them ahead of the visit that I thought there were one or more TSB’s on the non-Nav JBL system and to check them. Result: New Radio on Order. While they could not reproduce the cut-out, they tested and found a weak AM signal and also found an AM radio “Weak Signal” TSB. No argument: a new Radio is on order for warranty replacement. I’ll try and follow up on the TSB # and whether replacement = fix.

4.When I left the dealer, the Dash Display for the traction battery showed as low a level as I ever recall. I doubt that this is anything to be concerned about as this probably resulted from their putting 6-8 miles on the car for warranty issue diagnosis and rack time on the radio issue.

5.Tire Pressure: From testing prompted by these forums, I’ve settled on 40 PSI or the last 3-4K miles. As the database shows, my MPG increased since this change. The dealer didn’t hesitate in any way to check and inflate to 40 psi.

Final notes while waiting on service I walked there extensive lot and noticed that all Kentucky TCH’s have the Bridgestone’s and the Japanese builds have the Michelins. For Prius lovers, I also noticed a $3K mark-up on the 6 or 7 new vehicles on the lot.

Hope all this helps other TCH/Hybrid enthusiasts.

 

I asked the dealer to inflate to 34 PSI and he said they wont inflate to any setting other than the recommended setting, 32 PSI.

 

EDIT: Point out to the dealer that 35 PSI is recommended for high speed driving in the owners manual (Page 375)

I would talk to the service manager. The dealer I have service my TCH has no issues with checking and setting the tire pressures to 42psi front and 40psi rear. If I've just adjusted the pressures, I sometimes ask them to "leave the tire pressures as they are" and had it honored.

My TCH was built in Japan and came with Bridgestones. I currently have 34,000 miles and the tires are wearing even, with all measuring 6/32 tread depth. The original tread depth when I bought the TCH was 10/32. I'll most likely be replacing them around 45,000 to 50,000 miles. I might go for the Michelin Energy, but I am looking around for other LRR tires. I would like a quieter tire than the Bridgestones.

 

I thought I'd seen an earlier post about similar dealer refusals so I mentioned it. At least your dealer knew the recommended pressure vs my dealer being clueless on the recommended oil viscosity. On the tires, they can at least argue they don't want to take the a liability risk (think SUV's and Firestone) or cases where service employees have been injured with an exploding tire. Nevertheless, it seems that if they were that paranoid they could have you initial something short and simple that you've requested them to do X despite advising you that the manual/mfg recommends Y.

 

Postscript:

Warranty fix for shifter plate appears to have been successful. I believe they replaced the shifter assembly. On an invoice that was flashed at me, I did not get the part #, but cos was aproximately $340. This may have been the total they'll bill back to Toyota as to me it was "free" warranty service.

Radio: Also appears to be fixed by the swap, out of the radio. Since it was intermittent before, I'll keep my fingers crossed for awhile.

On another note, the jury is out on MPG results from the switch to 5/20W Oil. Slight decrease in the middle of the tank average and just filled up again. Weather in FL is also warming.

Finally, the dealer service front end did the best he could to overcome my annoyance over the way the service was delivered. We'd scheduled one appointment to do both radio and shifter and I was given a loaner.....sounds good. Well 6 hours later I got the call that they'd ordered the wrong radio so I'd have to come get the car and return when the correct radio arrived. Fortunately, they hadn't pulled the old one.

Returned as scheduled two days later for the radio. I was promised one hour swap but in the end was there for about 3 hours. Between visits I'd noticed that they'd left grease stains on the passenger seat and door from the earlier service. They did a "courtesy" wash and cleaned up the leather/door.

They said at check-in that correcting the grease issue and wash would take an extra 45 minutes or so. Yet, they parked my car for nearly an hour before service.

Bottom line: Screwy customer service from the selling dealer. I understand mistakes happen, but after ordering the wrong part and returning the car with grease stains, they should have been prepared to shine on the radio install visit.. and offer some real value back to me (without request), for my time and annoyance, without request. They did not.

 

I emailed a couple of the local dealers to see where I might get my first oil change at and below is what one of them replied.

"I spoke with my service and parts dept and they mentioned they don't carry the synthetic for the Hybrids. They also mention that Toyota calls for standard motor oil instead of the synthetic."

I won't be going there for an oil change.